Dear family and everyone else, I have failed to mention the last few weeks that I totally took an apple to the face. We were biking to the Ham building a Saturday night 3 weeks ago, and a bunch of teenagers in a pick up truck swore at us and threw the fruit. I didn't know it was an apple until Elder Wardle told me. It was amusing, painful, and irritating. Well now I can tell that I have been persecuted for Christ's sake. Anyway, I am pleased to announce that I will be staying with Elder Wardle for this last transfer he has. This might just be the area I will lead out soon enough, or else be doubled out. We will see what happens these next 6 weeks. I will also tell you now that because the MTC is extending to 3 weeks, all missions next transfer will be extended a week, so in total, my mission has been extended 3 weeks without my choice. Not what I expected, but oh well. Elder Wardle is going to get soo trunky this transfer. I just don't know how much though. This morning we were talking a bit about BYU and college in general and tuition and jobs. He even calculated how much he would need to work and at what wage so he doesn't get into debt these first 2 semesters when he gets home. It's exciting to think about hopeful futures. I just hope I don't fall down with him. My year mark is in 3 days, and I will be making my famous berry cobbler this week. It's going to be a great week. It's warming up already and the grass is growing, and I am starting to hear and see lawn mowers. I love the smell of freshly cut grass. It reminds me of the summer months back in Utah without that cold snow, mowing the lawn at my house. Because it's also warming up and it's my year mark, I'm doing something crazy again that only swimmers do at the end of the swim season. Yup, I'm shaving my legs on the 28th. Nobody will see since I do wear long pants after all. Jenny was pretty happy when we texted her last night that we are both staying. I felt great joy actually this morning and felt excited for this next transfer. I will be here to help retain Jenny in the church. We passed off her sister Sandra to the Spanish sisters. It was hard but it's what she wanted, so no baptism with her after all. She is still thinking of a date though. She doesn't want to push herself to hard. She's been investigating for a year and finally has an opportunity and then she immediately gets a new boyfriend who is not a member. Oh course! She seems like she is starting to waver. It's interesting that her sister got baptized before her and she still isn't a member yet. Come on Sandra. You can do this. Pray for her as I have prayed for her. Thank you all for all of your love and consideration in reading my weekly letters. We met with Jenny last night and addressed our concern to her. She hasn't come to church for a whole month since the year began. She told us that she wants the spirit more in her life. The Holy Ghost led her to take a long route home. That day, there was a shooting on a street on the way to her house, which would have been the short route. She felt protected by the spirit. I was happy to hear that she followed the prompting of the spirit. We also pointed that out to her as we asked about how her spiritual life is going. I also gave her a sticky note that says. 1. Did you Pray. 2. Did you read the scriptures? I'm sure that will better help her in her spiritual growth. She put it on her phone and was grateful for it. She made the goal to read the book in her lunch break at work instead of staring at the wall being bored. There is always time to read the Book of Mormon. If you get bored, start reading. It can really be entertaining as well with all it's good stories. We brought Brother Parker, our ward mission leader, to Ray's house one night. You could tell that the spirit was really strong over there. It was good to hear Brother Parker's reactivation story with Ray. I could tell he was learning a lot. Right now, he's just trying to understand the basics of the Bible. He read about Noah's flood and he thought it was interesting. We told him the meaning behind the story. If we repent and follow the prophet, we will be saved in the end. We wanted to talk about how we repent, but we didn't get to that. Instead, we talked a lot about who the Holy Ghost is, his role in our lives, keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, and a couple of other interesting topics. We left him with Moroni 8 through 10 to read until we come back. I'm hoping he will have read some of it by the time we do. He won't commit to baptism because he doesn't understand his faith yet, so we will continue to build that foundation of understanding while he repents of each new thing he learns about with the commandments. Things are picking up here in Lodi and we still have yet to find more people to teach and baptize and declare repentance to. One other thing I should mention before I finish up here. We had our worldwide missionary training in Manteca. It was pretty open where the Stake center was. I took another selfie once it was finished. The biggest thing I learned was to declare repentance unto baptism. We missionaries often times think so much about baptism that we forget about the repentance step. I sometimes wonder if the people we teach learn on their own and repent before baptism. Then I tell myself that they declare that when they are interviewed by one of our leaders. Then will the spirit testify that they truly have repented of their transgressions. That's about it. Have a fantasic week.Sincerely,Elder White

Dear family and everyone else, It's kinda warm today: 64 degrees. It's warming up already. On our way to the Ham Building, we rode by a baseball field completely flooded. It looks like you could walk knee deep in it. It's not going to drain anytime soon. It rained a lot last night. It also rained again earlier this week. This really is an El Nino year. It's raining pretty good around here. I hear it's snowing a lot from what my family is saying. One of the pictures that my family received was Elder Wardle and me eating dinner with the Gonzalez's. It was chicken and dumpling soup. It was really good until the dumplings expand in the stomach and make a person more full, but still good. Their little girl had a cold and could barely breath, so they did soup for her. Brother Gonzalez was picky and didn't eat his dumplings of all things. He said, "They look uncooked because it tastes squishy." I was chuckling on the inside. Last night, as we rode in the rain, we taught Felix finally, so we now have a new investigator. When he was in his 20's, he went to prison and taught himself self reliance. He taught himself to read and write, and become a kinder person. He is a total natural cook and can literally create new food ideas. He's been thinking about starting his own bakery. He said he makes really good cheesecake donuts. That totally perked up my ears. I totally want to try out his food. He lives with a recent convert of 2 years, Claudia. His faith in Christ has been developing over the years, and one day he talked to the missionaries when he felt alone and stood by the train tracks. The Elders rode up and asked if he was alright and said a prayer with him. That sparked his interest because of the love and service that was offered to him, so he wants to become a Mormon after that experience. We will be working with him toward baptism in these next 2 weeks or so. It depends on when he starts coming to church and other commitments that lead up to it. He's also been saying that he wants to marry Claudia, and Claudia felt the same way, so I hope that won't be an interview inhibitor when the time comes or else he will need to get married or move out. He has nowhere else to go. On Friday, I went on an exchange with Elder Laubman again. This time, I drove all over the place. A lot of it was on the 99 freeway. I'm comfortable with the freeway on ramp now after doing it like 4 times that one day. We went up to Wallace for a baptismal interview that the San Andreas Elders just had that next day. Then we went all the way to Galt to work in his area for only 3 hours. It was a nice relaxing car ride. I've been having a hard time, so Elder Laubman gave me some council and I felt better. He also said to me to consider the homeless people too in the work. Although they don't have a home, if we show kindness to them and give them a Book of Mormon to read, they will remember that and when they are self reliant again and have a home, they may find the missionaries again and be baptized. That changed my mindset for many people. Be more kind. Work really does make a difference in missionary work. That night I dreamed a parable, and I'm not going to say much about it because it was awful. That morning, I pondered on it as I stretched, and the Lord said in my mind, "I will destroy what I will destroy, but for you, thou shalt forgive all men of their trespasses, and declare repentance." I thought about that saying again and again. I then came with a new goal to think of God's love for his children by saving his children from sin, and the power of the earth and all of it's creations. I told myself, "Creation is more powerful than destruction." You know how kids are fascinated with powerful things, well, I still have that childhood mentality and I am moving on. I will have greater virtue like the Christlike attribute in Preach My Gospel. Then will I be happier and find greater joy and consideration for the other people I do meet and for God's many beautiful creations. May we all show greater love and kindness to others as we go out in the world every day. "Peace on earth, good will toward men." We also picked up Peter. He was a referral from the Spanish sisters. He seems slow in the mind so we are deciding how we will best teach him this next little while. We also taught John Piplono again Saturday. He says he's humble and willing to change and come closer to Christ. He said he would be at church yesterday but didn't show. If he wants a better spiritual life, he needs to do something about it and exercise faith. We also have been trying to get my oil back, but we keep forgetting or we become too busy in the evening to go get it, so hopefully I can get it tonight finally. Transfer calls are this Saturday by the way, so prepare to await "The News." One other thing, all missionaries are having a training this Wednesday from the first presidency, so we are all looking forward to that.Have a great week everyone.Elder White P.S. Of the other pictures, I am laughing at a picture my family sent of my cat Tibsey under my sister's blanket. Also that thing I said about the flooded field, there's a picture of that as well. The other: Elder Wardle broke his acoustic guitar so he's playing his electric on his little speaker. Yup, I'm crazy. Till next week, bye

Eating chicken and dumpling soup. Yum! Tyler gets a picture of his cat from home that he likes. Elder Wardle plays the electric guitar.

Dear family and everyone else, Well, I do feel a little better compared to last week. This cold is kicking my butt. I'm tired a lot, especially this morning. I took a 2 hour nap on Tuesday, and that helped a lot. We are expecting this week to have a Zone Conference of Lodi, Stockton, and the Manteca stakes on Wednesday, then a district meeting as usual on Thursday. This time, I will try to bring my camera and get pictures of this event. I'm so bad with my camera. Sorryl. So this week, it's been pretty slow. Jenny's doing okay in her new job up in Galt. She and her sister are working at a recycling plant. She says it's really disgusting. Rats in the basement, lots of dirty diapers, dead animals in jars, and occasionally needles. They both got up late again and missed church. 9:00 church is really difficult to get anyone including less actives, recent converts, and investigators to church. If only all wards could just be at 11:00. Then everyone would be happy. It's not too early, or too late. What can you do? Oh well. She and her sister are planning on moving out soon. They want to live on their own and split from their parents house. Her parents are starting to take advantage of her pay checks. They are being lazy and won't work more that what they should be. We did find a new potential investigator. His name is Felix. He is living with Claudia, a recent convert of 2 years or so that moved into the ward. They are currently fixing up, and setting up their new home and we should be starting to teach him the lessons on Friday or so. He really wants to be a member, because he has seen the church bless his life. If it weren't for Claudia, he could be on the streets, doing drugs, alcohol and doing all manner of evil in the sight of the lord. He says he has been significantly blessed by her. She is the boss of the house and what she says, they all do. Other note, her dog can be really sensitive, so she doesn't yell or spank the dog if it accidentally bathrooms all over their house. She continues to love the tiny thing. One other thing, we did have dinner with another Parker family last night. They have been converts for 17 years this year. Their son Adam had a friend he met once and they gamed online a lot on the X-Box and he moved in from Rode Island 3 days ago. Adam is sort of less active. He is in school to become a anesthesiologist. He can be apprehensive about some things because of his logic, so that's part of the reason he went less active in the first place. He is 20 and his friend Moro is 19. He pretty much ran away from home because his Catholic mom from Portugal is too extreme and religious. He couldn't take it anymore. He is lost in his own world. He tried the military but his health got in the way. He's just trying to find himself and know who he really is and what he wants. We do hope we can have dinner with them again so we can talk to him about the church to see if he's interested. All in good time. That's about it this week.Sincerely,Elder White

Dear Family and everyone else, Happy 2016 everyone. It's been a good 2015 being called to serve as I said goodbye for 2 years to my family. As for 2016, I will have a full year to serve in California, and 1 1/2 months in 2017 before I can say hi in person and give hugs to them all. As of today, I am sick with the common cold. I guess being a missionary isn't everything. I am not invincible. But being how late into the winter cold season, I was doing pretty good up until this point. My nose is runny, my eyes are watering, I feel like I need to sneeze, and I don't. Yup, having a cold is just ggrreeaatt... Good thing I got cough drops, and Day/NyQuil to support me and vitamin C. To add to all this, it's suppose to rain half the week this week. I have been exaggerating in my mind that I am near to the point of death--as if today is my last day being alive as a missionary. This inspired me to work harder than ever! Also this week, I received a new "Preach My Gospel," because my old one was getting torn apart. I have pictures of them too. As I started studying in it completely fresh, I am finding new things that I may have overlooked the first time. I am different than I was nearly one year ago. I am nearing my year mark in a couple weeks. It's exciting that I allowed myself to press forth and endure to the end. It's been bumpy, but this is worth it. Throughout this weekend, I have been accessing my testimony. As I read in Chapter 11 about keeping commitments, I read in the section "Bearing your Testimony Frequently." It got me thinking, am I keeping my testimony selfishly? If so, am I going to lose it just like President Thomas S. Monson has said? So I did something about it. I shared my testimony at fast and testimony meeting yesterday. I say it was the most powerful testimony I have ever bore in my life. I want to prove to myself and to others that I know the scriptures are true and that they continue to change my life for the better. "Preach My Gospel" is also modern day scripture. It is one of two books that have ever been written inside the temple. The other one being Jesus The Christ. I have also looked here and there inside and it's really interesting and insightful. Also, throughout this weekend, we have been having a Zone council almost every day about setting up a baptism goal per missionary by the end of the year. After what should have been only 30 minutes, it turned into 4 1/2 hours total so far on a number that we just can't agree on. At first, I thought 4, then 2. Then 3, and then the spirit told me it is 4. I felt that confirmation on Sunday for the number 4. However, 3 missionaries in the Lodi Zone felt otherwise. Hermana Maya said 3, Elder Feltman said 5/6, and another elder said he hasn't felt anything yet and still waiting on a confirmation. I have learned what the apostles go through in making any decisions. I felt my spiritual testimony become stronger in doing this. After so many hours of pondering and discussing, we came to a conclusion to trust the Zone Leaders to take care of it and bring it up to president in their leadership council. I think they will also mention that the majority was in favor for 4. So this will be interesting for a little while until this matter is finally resolved. So please, pray for us all in the Modesto Mission that we can set a goal that is "The will of the Father" for this year. Thank you all for 'watching with me' in my adventures as a missionary for our Savior Jesus Christ and his eternal family. May we all be united under his true, restored gospel, and that we can find everlasting happiness in this life and the next to come. I love you all. Have a great week.Elder White.P.S. The Lodi 2nd ward is also having 9:00 church so there is no relaxing that morning. It's rush rush rush and off to ward council at 7:15. While we were gone this one time because I was sick, Brother Parker told us to arrive at 8:00, so we can have more time to prepare. Also, in one of the pictures, I was bored so I decided to take a picture of me on my bike in my usual looks while riding in the cold. I even bought a beenie hat to keep my ears warm. Now the only place on my that gets cold now is my nose. Nothing I can do about that. Oh well.